Learning Theory

Question 1

Describe Learning Therory

Answer 1

-The learning theory of attachment suggests that the child and the mother form an attachment due to learning the behaviours of attachment
- We learn attachment via both Classical and Operant Conditioning.

The mother is a neutral stimulus who elicits no response from the infant.
-The food is the unconditioned stimulus innately producing the unconditioned response of pleasure.
-Over time, the mother becomes associated with the food.
-She then becomes the conditioned stimulus and produces the conditioned response.
-The mother now brings pleasure to the infant without food and this is the basis of attachment.

Question 2

A03 - Harlow + Shaffer and Emerson

Answer 2

• The main limitation of learning theory is that it claims that food is the key element in the formation of attachment.
  -This has been challenged by Harlow’s research. He found that infant rhesus monkeys showed attachment to the cloth/comfort “mother” - when they were frightened they ran back to the “comfort monkey”, suggesting the ‘food monkey’ was not a haven of safety.

-In addition, Schaffer & Emerson (1964) found that 39% of babies do not attach to the physical carer/feeder. This means that attachment is not based on feeding but on instinctive process or other rewards such as attention.
-Hence, food is not the only way to develop an attachment.

Question 3

A03 - Animal Studies

Answer 3

• Learning theory is largely based on studies with non-human animals, such as Skinner’s research with pigeons.
  -On the one hand, human behaviour patterns are constructed from the same basic building blocks of stimulus and response.
  -Therefore, behaviourists argue, it is legitimate to generalise
  attachment processes from animal studies to humans.

-However, not all aspects of human behaviour can be explained by conditioning.
-Complex behaviours involve innate predispositions and mental
activity that cannot be explained in terms of conditioning.
-Hence, this learning theory explanation may lack validity because it presents an oversimplified version of human attachment.

Question 4

A03 - Bowlbys monotropic theory

Answer 4

• Learning theory has been largely replaced t by Bowlby’s monotropic
  theory. It has many advantages over learning theory.
• First of all, it can explain why attachments form, whereas learning theory can only explain how they might form.
  -Learning theory also offers no explanation of the advantages of attachment. However, Bowlby’s theory suggests that the
  advantages include protection from harm and thus attachment may have evolved as an adaptive behaviour which would enhance survival.

-Bowlby’s theory also offers a better explanation of
research findings. For example, it can explain Schaffer and Emerson’s findings that infants are not always most strongly attached to the person who feeds them – instead they may form the primary
attachment with a non-feeding mother or non-feeding father because this has a greater adaptive value

• Hence, learning theory as an explanation of attachment appears too simplistic.